New ICHCAP Online Community on Intangible Cultural Heritage

The International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (ICHCAP) has recently launched the ICHCAP Online Community, an online platform to provide information on organisations and individuals related to intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in the Asia-Pacific region and enable networking among various stakeholders. The community site is intended to connect members and promote cooperation and communication for ICH safeguarding. First of all, ICHCAP has built a directory of ICH-related organisations and individuals, enabling members to check the contact information, areas of work, and other details. Members are also allowed to download multimedia files through the directory. Currently, the directory contains relevant information of 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific region (Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, and Sri Lanka). Additional information of four Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) will be available from 2019. To use the directory, member registration is required. In addition, the community site provides a platform for communication among members of various networks. Each thematic network, such as on the youth and tertiary education, has group pages for member discussions and information sharing. ICHCAP will continue to update the directory and provide support for various stakeholders to effectively use the platform. It also encourages members in the ICH field in the Asia-Pacific region to participate in the platform. The new ICHCAP online community is accessible via http://net.ichcap.org/